1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a system for controlling an operation of a module type capsule robot in a body, and more particularly, to a system for controlling an operation of a module type capsule robot in a body, which alternately fixes capsule robots, interconnected by permanent magnets, to an internal organ wall to be moved in one direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopy is a representative medical procedure for diagnosing and treating a digestive system. Recently, a doctor directly observes the digestive system by using a long and bent tool having a camera, which allows more accurate determination in comparison to an existing image technology (using angiographic, ultrasonic wave, X-ray or the like). However, such a traditional endoscopy may give serious inconvenience to a patient and is not able to inspect the small intestine due to its physical limit.
In the current clinical trials, the wireless capsule endoscopy and the deep small bowl endoscopy are used for inspect the small intestine. First, in the wireless capsule endoscopy, after a patient swallow a small capsule-type endoscopic tool, the endoscopic tool in a human body due to intestinal mobility, and a camera included therein takes pictures periodically or in proportion to a moving speed during the movement and sends the pictures to an external storage device wirelessly. After that, a doctor analyzes the stored pictures and determines abnormality. However, this capsule endoscope is not capable of adjusting a location, speed, direction or the like of the capsule, which often makes it difficult to obtain so sufficient information to determine abnormality, and additional treatments such as biopsy and polypectomy cannot be performed.
As another method, the deep small bowl endoscopy capable of inspecting a small intestine is used at clinical trials. However, the deep small bowl endoscopy is somewhat invasive and causes inconvenience of a patient and hard work of an operator due to a long inspection time of 1 to 2 hours, and it is frequently difficult to insert the tool or remove the polypus since the endoscope is long and forms a loop.
To overcome such drawbacks, endoscopies in which a robot technology is employed to a capsule robot endoscope are being studied. However, in order to apply the endoscopies to actual medical spots, some obstacles should be overcome.
First, due to the limit of a capsule size, it is difficult to accommodate various functions such as a camera module, a movement module, a power module, a wireless communication module, a biopsy module or the like in a small capsule. Accordingly, a complicated design is demanded, and there is a limit in applying this technique to a surgical treatment which needs multi-degree of mobility freedom.
Second, it is difficult to implement an effective movement mechanism in a digestive internal organ (a small intestine and a large intestine) which is smooth and has irregular environments. Even though a movement mechanism has been implemented and manifested in various studies which have been performed in the art, there are many limits in application to an actual medical spot since the capsule has an increased size and does not has a desired speed or function.
Third, since various functions such as a movement mechanism are included in a single capsule robot, a great power is demanded. For this reason, a large battery should be increased or a separate battery module should be carried.
The assembling reconfigurable endoluminal surgical (ARES) recently introduced in the art is an assembly-type robot platform. Here, ten or more robot modules are swallowed by a patient and then assembled in the stomach into a specific structure to perform inspection or treatment. Until now, the assembling reconfigurable endoluminal surgical is a proto type which just shows its concept, and an operating mechanism for actual assembling or treating has not been proposed. In addition, since a patient should swallow ten or more robot modules, the patient inevitably feels inconvenience and it is not easy to remove the robot modules. In addition, there is no detailed explanation in relation to interactive operations of the capsule robots in a narrow and smooth environment in a small intestine or a large intestine, other than the stomach.